Conference Agenda

Objectives or purposes of the session

The proposition underpinning the Innovate Session is that there can be no national educational excellence without stronger equity of outcomes - equity and excellence are inseparable. Indeed, Equity is the surest path to Excellence in Education. There is far too little debate however, over which policy levers and strategies actually enhance social mobility and equity and how to generate a consensus around moral purpose in education. The purpose of the session is to address this worrying lacuna.

Educational importance for theory, policy, research, and/or practice

There is no doubt that the knowledge base on educational effectiveness at the school and system level has expanded exponentially over recent decades. However, it is still open to debate whether this research and policy evidence has resulted in consistent increases in student learning and performance. Too many political and policy debates focus on standardised testing as a measure of educational excellence. This is problematic because there is convincing international evidence that too strong a focus on externally determined and narrow academic learning outcomes is associated with deteriorating student performance. The Innovate Session explores this dilemma from the perspectives of policy, research and practice.

The format and approach(es) that will be used in the session to engage participants in the exploration of the area of practice

As specified, the session will include 3 focus areas, each of which will be allocated 30 minutes. The presentations will focus on the following three topics:

1. Achieving Excellence through Equity in Educational systems - background, evidence conceptual framework

2. Current practice in Australia, UK, Chile, USA – brief case studies

3. Implications for Leadership and System Reform -generating guidelines / drivers for success.

Each 30 minute session will comprise of a presentation of 15 minutes from two members of the ‘Invisible College’ with 10 minutes discussion facilitated by one of the world’s leading educational facilitators. The remaining 5 minutes will be devoted to summarising the knowledge emerging from the discussion. Time will be reserved at the end of the session to summarise the learning from all the three sessions, including a critical commentary from the Respondent. All the members of the ‘Invisible College’ are globally recognised academics and activists and long standing ICSEI members, including three Presidents.

Connection to the conference theme

The two conference themes most closely associated with this ‘Innovate Session’ are:

• Leading schools and education systems that promote equity, inclusion, belonging, diversity, social justice, global citizenship and/ or environmental sustainability.

• Exploring the evolving research and evidence base for leadership education and capacity building.